Improved hose-protector



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ISAAO H. STONE, OF ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI.

IM PROVED HOSE-PROTECTOR..

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 55,550, dated June 12,1866.

To all whom 'it may concern:

Be it known that I, IsAAO H. STONE, of St. Louis, in the county of St.Louis and State of Missouri, have invented a bridge for coveringfire-engine hose when crossing the track of city railways 5 and I dohereby declare that the following is a full and clear descriptionthereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawings and to theletters of reference marked thereon.

The annexed drawings represent a perspective view Of one of the bridgesapplied to the tracks of a street-railway so as to cover a hose.

The object of this invention is to produce a light portable bridge to beused on city railways for the purpose oi' covering the hose oi'lire-engines when it becomes necessary to carry the said hose acrossthe. track in case of rc, thereby enabling the street-cars to continuetheir'regular trips during the continuance of a lire.

To enable those whose business it is to conduct city railways and Othersto construct and use myimproved portable bridge for covering hose oftire-engines, I will proceed to describe its construction and Operation.

The said bridge consists of two short sections Of rails, A A, connectedtogether by a hollow transverse beam, B. The groove cut in the bottom'of the tracks or rails and the beam should be large enough to admit oneor more fullsized tire-engine hose. The rails should be' high enough intheir longitudinal center to raise the wheels of the Vcars over thehollow beam B, and from this center point 'they should be graduallysloped down toward either end, at a, where they will t tightly to theordinary rails of the road d, so as to permit the wheels of the cars toArun up on them without any difficulty.

The rails AAl may be fastened together or to the beam B by means of thescrew-bolt c, or other similar arrangements.

The said rails may be made wholly of iron, or they may be made of woodcovered with strapiron on that portion of them on which the wheels run.They may be constructed so that each rail may be of one solid piece, oreach rail may consist of two pieces jointed together in the center. soas to accommodate the rails of the bridge to the inequalities of theroad-track, whether such inequalities consist ot' elevations ordepressions. i

l am aware that portable bridges consisting of an 'entire covering fromone end of them to the other have been used some for this same purpose;but they have been found to be too clumsy and heavy for any general use,and consequently were thrown aside.

This bridge may be secured in any place wherel it is to be used by meansofthe two dogs e, attached to the sides of it and driven into the groundor pavement. There are also short spurs e', attached to each of therails near their ends, so as to extend down alongside of the permanenttrack, in Order to prevent lateral motion of the ends of thebridgerails.

Having described my invention, what I claim is- The combination of therails A and A with the hollow beam B, the dogs e, and spurs e', forminga secure protection for hose during the entire length of its passageover railway tracks, as set forth.

IsAAO H. STONE.

